Young women with breast cancer present our healthcare professionals with difficult cases. They are often diagnosed with aggressive forms of breast cancer that require tough therapies. And the powerful treatments needed to stop the cancer can cause many complex side effects for young women, including early menopause.

More than a century ago, an international conference of some 100 working women meeting in Copenhagen decided to establish an annual Women's Day. As we approach the 104th International Women's Day on March 8, large gender gaps remain both in Canada and globally. This time, however, the annual event may become a catalyst for meaningful action, at least in election-year Canada.

Last year when the Manchester dog's home went up in flames I was watching the television and my first thought was how proud I felt that the UK was such a generous nation of animal lovers. However this was swiftly followed by my second, which was, how can we possibly justify raising of £2million for animals when there are children like my eight-year-old son, Harrison, dying every day from fatal illnesses. Harrison has Duchenne, a disease that means he probably won't live to see his 20th birthday. In 2011 I founded Harrison's Fund to raise money to fund research to develop a cure.

I don't want to tell you the story of my drunkenness. You've heard it before, or seen it before, or a version of it. It is not unique. I don't have a tale to weave for you of bizarre miracles and angels and heavenly choirs. I want to tell you of simple amazement. I fell, upwards. I fell into a life, once I stopped shaking and twitching and seeing things and vomiting. This has not just been a sobriety lesson, but a life one. At school, with loved ones, even (perhaps especially and most simply) on my writing journey -- honesty, being open and willing to accept some guidance goes a long way.

People living in industry-heavy areas of cities such as Hamilton, Sarnia, and Windsor bear an unfair burden when it comes to exposure to air contaminants. Many of these substances -- including benzene, sulphur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, and particulate matter -- are known to pose serious threats to human health,

In 1962 a doctor in Perth, Ontario gave my mother a sample pack of two tablets of the drug thalidomide. She took one pill for her morning sickness, but that one tiny pill made her feel even worse. That one pill stunted the growth of my arms. There are only 95 of us left out of 125, we are dying prematurely due to thalidomide-related injuries. On December 1, 2014, the Canadian parliament stood and voted unanimously 256-0 to support a motion that was tabled by MP Libby Davies to fully support us. We need to get this compensation now.

Earlier this month, Inuit leaders and others gathered in Ottawa to look back at the past 15 years and, more importantly, discuss Nunavut's future. With pressure growing to resolve many outstanding aboriginal treaty issues across Canada, it's worth looking at the Nunavut experience.

That people's outcomes in life shouldn't be determined by their income, gender, age, race, ethnicity, disability or geography is a truly transformative notion that could shift the course of global development - for good. But it's also a tall order.

The expropriation of land for mining projects can have the greatest impact on women. Women need land to grow food to feed their families or for subsistence farming which can be an important source of income. Lost access to land via land grabs means that women's livelihoods become more precarious, thus causing greater economic dependence on men.

Some touching acceptance speeches, some political activism, and some complete disregard for the "start wrapping up your speech, please" music. But who can blame them? Here's exactly WHY the actors and actresses rocked their speeches, not only for WHAT they said, but HOW they said it.

The bad news is we perceive bullying to be more prolific than it was when we were young. The good news is we seem to be more aware and less tolerant of its destructive effects. We're split on how effectively our schools are dealing with the problem, to be sure. But the conversations are more open; the subject less beguiling.

If Spielberg's Lincoln can erase Frederick Douglass from the story of abolition with little opposition, and if American Sniper can repackage Chris Kyle's memoirs through rebooting cowboy movie aesthetics to shape a mythic version of the Iraq war that recasts a kind of patriotic racism as heroism and entertainment, then certainly Selma should be allowed to put the contribution of Lyndon B. Johnson into sharper perspective.

Eight million tonnes. That's how much plastic we're tossing into the oceans every year! University of Georgia environmental engineer Jenna Jambeck says it's enough to line up five grocery bags of trash on every foot of coastline in the world.

Canada, we need to talk. It's a little bit crazy that we're still having this conversation about this crucial element of responsible pet ownership. We wish spay/neuter was something everyone did, without question.

Unfortunately, misconceptions and misinformation about this curriculum are continuing to make their way around the Internet, mostly because people seem bound and determined to willfully ignore the actual facts before forming an opinion. So today I'm going to address the most common myths about the new curriculum.

WHO recommends vitamin A supplements to improve child survival. Vitamin A supplements have been shown to reduce the number of deaths from measles by 50 per cent, in populations with vitamin A deficiency. For children who are vitamin A deficient or undernourished, it would seem a simple solution -- immunization against measles and better nutrition -- to save lives.